Privatised care ”is not value for money”

Privatising and outsourcing local authority services is not providing value for money for taxpayers, Heather Wakefield has said.

The Unison national secretary for local government told a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat Birmingham conference this was especially notable in social care.

“The privatisation of social care has neither improved services not delivered value for public money,” she said.

Huge amounts of money were spent on procurement and consultants, while inflated salaries were paid to directors and senior staff, but not to the rest of the workforce.